NEW YORK — Reuven Gershon and James Fox have some insanely daunting shoes to fill: Every night,
they’re asked to impersonate John and Paul on Broadway.

Yes, that John and Paul.

Gershon and Fox portray John Lennon and Paul McCartney in a Fab Four cover band that has taken
its concert show,
Let It Be, from London to New York.

During the course of two hours, the duo — Fox is from Cardiff, Wales; and Gershon is from
Birmingham, England — bangs out about 40 Beatles songs, from
She Loves You to
While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

“We have very important jobs because these people will never get to see the Beatles. This is the
closest they’ll come, so the representation has to be pretty accurate. It’s a big responsibility,”
Fox said. “It’s everyone’s musical bible, isn’t it?”

Both men, part of a 10-man contingent cast for Broadway, are singer-songwriters in their 30s
with a background in theater who originated their iconic roles in London, even if the program or
show never actually identifies them as George, John, Paul or Ringo. Each can sing and play piano,
guitar and bass.

Jeff Parry, the show’s producer, said he and his team looked for musicians with energy. “You
have to close your eyes and hear it. We don’t go for looks. To be quite honest, we don’t cast for
that,” he said. “It’s really about being able to play and sing like the Beatles.”

Gershon, whose favorite boyhood pop star was John Lennon and who was a Lennon impersonator, is
making his Broadway debut in the show.

“What you have to be good at is being able to replicate what they did,” said Gershon, who has
played Buddy Holly in the musical
Buddy in London. “It never ends. There’s always more you can do.”

Adding to the pressure is a lawsuit. The
Let It Be producers are being sued for copyright infringement by the Rain Corp., which
produced the rival touring show
Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles.

In the lawsuit, the Rain Corp., which took its show to Broadway in 2010, claims that it taught
the new group the ropes — the dialogue, staging, song list and even blocking — and hasn’t been
compensated or credited.

Neither show has the rights to tell a behind-the-scenes band story. What they’ve done is
licensed Lennon-McCartney songs — augmented by no more than two George Harrison tunes per show —
from Sony/ATV, the Beatles’ publishing company.

“We tell the story through music and costume changes,” said Parry, who, before
Let It Be, was a producer associated with
Rain.
Let It Be, he said, “is the story but not the
Jersey Boys version.”